Image artifacts while watching TV (1 Viewer)

[whendrix]

Area: Media Portal Program
MP Version: 0.0.1.3
Skin: Blue Two or MCE
Windows Version: WinXP Professional + SP2
CPU Type: AMD Athlon64 3000
Memory: 1Gb
Motherboard Chipset: NForce 4 Ultra
Video Card: Sapphire X300 256Mb
Video Card Driver: Catalyst 5.9
Video Card Resolution: 1024 x 768, 32 bit
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: Intervideo
Audio Codec Type & Version: MP3
TV Card: Compro Video Mate Gold Rev. 2
TV Card Type: software
TV Card Driver: Compro VMTV_Driver2330
Optional Log: parts of the "/log/MediaPortal.log" which show an issue
Optional References:

Hi,

First of all, let me tell you I really like this piece of software. Big thumbs up for everyone involved in the development.

I have, however, a problem while watching TV. The problem is illustrated in the screenshots below. When I'm watching video in Pal 720*576 format, I see ugly horizontal lines in some parts of the screen.

I was searching through these forums as it seems to be an interlacing problem but could not find a suitable solution so far :-( I was trying severel de-interlacing settings (bob, weave, best) and several decoders (Intervideo, NVidia, decoders in MP) and their registry tweak posted in this forum but nothing has worked so far... or I overlooked something.

I already replaced the GFX card with a Sapphire X800GT from my other PC but the problem remained.

I already tried modifying the filter using GraphEdit but I cannot get rid of the ugly bundle of lines.

The bundle is not stationary, it appears at several vertical positions.

I also thought of a possible PCI bus problem so I put the TV card in another slot, no change. I don't use any other PCI device (bar the PCI-E GFX card).

Watching works just fine at Pal 720*576 in Compro PVR software and Intervideo WinDVR3.

Take a look at the 2 screenshots below and tell me what you think about this problem. One link refers to the vmr9.log, maybe that helps some of you to identify the problem as well...

Personally I have a suspicion that the de-interlacer is not working as it should because some jaggies around high contrast edges are visible in the screenshots. Another indication in this direction is the third screenshot, which is created using the de-interlace filter in xnview.

Capture 1
xnview de-interlaced capture 1
Capture 2
MediaPortal.log
vrm9.log

Thanks in advance for reading and helping me out,
Wim

 

[whendrix]

Some experiments - How to make MP use Graphedit graph?

Hi again,

I did some further experiments today and I guess I'm getting somewhere.

I already had the impression the de-interlacing that I set in MP setup was not actually used in MP. To get a clue about what was going on, I launched Graphedit while MP was running. With the option "Connect to remote graph" I was able to capture the following graph. Please note that deinterlacing WAS SET in MP setup and in ffdshow with ffdshow postprocessing on in MP setup.

GraphEdit capture directly from MP

I already found it suspicious that no deinterlacing filter was being shown :-(

With this Graph, I made the following captures. Please note the bad horizontal artifacts in both captures.

Capture 1 with MP imported filter graph
Capture 2 with MP imported filter graph

I started playing around in GraphEdit and modified the graph by inserting the ffdshow filter and enable deinterlacing (linear blending) in the filter properties.

GraphEdit modified filter graph

With these settings, I made the following captures:

Capture 1 with modified filter graph
Capture 2 with modified filter graph

As you can see, the horizontal band with bad deinterlacing artifacts is gone. I'm happy with this filtersetting although it can maybe do with some further tuning...

My only problem is now, how do I get MP to use the filter as shown in the modified graph??? I don't have a clue how that can work...

Thanks in advance for your help,
Wim

 

[Marcusb]

This is a little off track and you may have already done this, but a good way to deal with interlacing when using PAL is to change your monitor refresh rate to a multiple of 25. Most TV out ports are set to 60Hz by default, but if you can force it to 75Hz this may help. Seems to have worked for me...

 

[SiLenTYL]

if u want to use Intervideo codecs there are some registry hack which make the picture quality better..... HERE : http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=682

if u want to use nVidia codecs(which have perfect deinterlacing) for TV there are some reg hacks for it ..... HERE : http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7495

 

[whendrix]

Thank you both for your replies!

@ Marcusb

Yes, I had my monitor already running at 75Hz because I already read the suggestion you posted somewhere else in the forum. Unfortunately, it did not resolve my particular problem :-(

@ SiLenTYL

Thank you for the 2 links. I already tried the registry trick with NVidia codecs. Although, my registry was probably a bit cluttered up due to stuff I was doing already. I got a clean install of Win XP now so I will give it a try again.

One question though, should the Nvidia filter show up in Graphedit when I capture the filter while MP is running? I tried it last time and although I had the NVidia filter selected in MP setup, Graphedit did not show it... I found this a little suspicious bit I will try it again.

The question on how to get a graph edit modified filter to run in MP still stands btw, so any pointers in this direction are still much appreciated.

Thanks, Wim

 

[whendrix]

if u want to use Intervideo codecs there are some registry hack which make the picture quality better..... HERE : http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=682

if u want to use nVidia codecs(which have perfect deinterlacing) for TV there are some reg hacks for it ..... HERE : http://nolanparty.com/mediaportal.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7495

OK, I tried the suggestions for the NVidia codec but I'm afraid MP is not using it :-(

Here are my registry settings:

Registry settings

and this is my MP TV setting

MP TV Setting

Unfortunately, when launching MP I see still the ugly horizontal artifacts bar and capturing the filter in Graphedit does not reveal any sign of the NVidia codec being used :-(

Any suggestions?

Like I said, I have a modified filter solution in Graphedit but how to get MP to use it???

Thanks, Wim

 

[Taipan]

Unfortunately, when launching MP I see still the ugly horizontal artifacts bar and capturing the filter in Graphedit does not reveal any sign of the NVidia codec being used :-(

But your "MP TV Setting" shows that you have selected the Intervideo decoder?

If "Graphedit does not reveal any sign of the NVidia codec being used", then what codec is being revealed in GraphEdit?

Some suggestions for you to try:-

Install the NVIDIA video decoder and select it in MP Configuration.

Uninstall ffdshow, if you have it on your PC. I have found that some versions of ffdshow are problematic and by default have a very high Merit.

Start MP and with TV playing, use GraphEdit to "render a remote graph". Hopefully the NVIDIA decoder will be used - right click on it and in the properties you can set the de-interlacing to automatic. You can also change the settings by clicking on the NVIDIA icon in the system tray, which is visible whenever the NVIDIA decoder is in use.

Let us know how you go.....

 

[whendrix]

Unfortunately, when launching MP I see still the ugly horizontal artifacts bar and capturing the filter in Graphedit does not reveal any sign of the NVidia codec being used :-(

But your "MP TV Setting" shows that you have selected the Intervideo decoder?

Sorry, my mistake Must have pressed "page down" or "page up" just before taking the screenshot.

Anyway, trying to uninstall ffdshow now -> reboot -> uninstall NVidia decoder -> reboot -> reinstall NVIdia decoder -> reboot

And hopefully all is going to be well after that... Fingers crossed :-D

Wim

 

[whendrix]

OK, so I did what I described in the previous post... but still no resukt imho :-(

The Radlight setting for the nvidia filter:

Radlight Nvidia

The MP settings:

Settings part1

Setting part2

Settings part3

The Graphedit capture:

Selecting graph while MP running

Captured graph

As you can see, no sign of the NVidia decoder :-(

I also updated all my log files after I did the above changes so you can see them here:

MP log

Capture log

Error log

Recorder log

VMR9 log

Checking the log files, I find these lines interesting:

In recorder.log:

10/19/2005 10:09:18 AM RecordertartViewing() channel:5 tvon:True timeshift:False vmr9:False
10/19/2005 10:09:18 AM Recorder: Card:1 viewing:False recording:False timeshifting:False channel:

why vmr9:false?
why viewing:false?

Maybe I interprete these lines in the wrong way :-/

In MediaPortal.log: I can find the initialisation of the capture card and the capture compressor (Intervideo in this case) but nothing about NVidia decoder that should render the preview pin :-( The same goes for capture.log at first glance :-(

Error.log contains the following line:

10/19/2005 10:09:20 AM SWGraph:render video preview

Is this something to be worried about?

Once again, thanks everyone for looking into this and trying to find the problem.

Wim

 

[Taipan]

Hi Wim,

I am not familiar with the Compro Video Mate Gold Rev. 2, but I assume from your setup screens that it is an analog TV card with software encoding?

Your GraphEdit captured graph shows that neither the selected Video decoder (NVIDIA) nor the selected Audio decoder (MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM audio decoder) are included in the graph?

Maybe this is a characteristic of analog software encoding cards? I will have to leave that for someone with more knowledge of software cards to comment....